For many people, learning a second language involves familiarising themselves with the grammatical rules of the language. My experience of learning the English language has been no different. In my younger years, I assiduously memorised the participle forms of verbs, acquainted myself with the infinitives, and processed the differences between definite and indefinite articles. I…
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“A Universal Boyhood—Transcending the Borders of Age, Gender and Culture” by Suzanne Lai
It was really overwhelming the moment I braced the chill in the evening air outside Everyman Baker Street Cinema. I kept thinking about the level of association I had with the film I just saw. Boyhood, it was. Directed by Richard Linklater, Boyhood tells the coming-of-age story of a six-year-old boy in America. It records the becoming of the…
“Dreaming, Holding A Letter From A Ten-year-old Me” by Tammy Ho Lai-Ming
“The Child in Her Gentle Slumber” (1840) by George Cattermold, published in Dickens’s The Old Curiosity Shop. More about this plate can be found here. – Do you remember dreams well? What is a recent dream that you remember? . I had a nightmare, which consisted of the following images: . Someone tries to…
“A Cantonese Curse / against the Fur Industry / in Hong Kong English” by Lian-Hee Wee
Nico said, ‘ Poor guy!’ Cheese in buns chart low sea fart. Mob pays the young Czar. Translation: Zombies on the road. Shorted rectums, useless dongs. The dregs who flay kids. Note: The haiku is to be read in Hong Kong English (with her special syllable structures) to reveal the Cantonese curse (translated). Thanks to…
“The Window” by Daisy Lam
One drunken night, people living on my floor decided that they wanted more windows. ::::: Daisy Lam is a third-year student studying at the Department of English and the Department of Education. [Read all entries by Daisy.]
“Ten Years” by Lam Man Tsun
“Who wanted to deal with politics? I do it just for a living.” Explicitly or implicitly, the directors of the five stories in the movie Ten Years, a low-budget indie film made and released in 2015, tell us the same message: no matter what, we are doomed in the end. All set in 2025, I…
“Anti-Japanese Drama” by Benjamin Lam
‘A scene from a TV series that shows a Chinese man repelling a Japanese soldier with his fist.’ (Source: China Daily) Dr. Ruth Y.Y. Hung’s presentation on Monday 11 January 2016, entitled “Classic or Farce? Making a Spectacle of the Latest ‘Anti-Japanese Drama’” [abstract], touched upon the concept of the Anti-Japan shenju (神劇) — also…
Announcement: Abel Han Song won the TSMC Literary Award
Abel Han Song (English Language and Literature, Year 4) won the TSMC Literature Award 2015. As a biennial award for Sinophone novella writing, this award attracts new comers in Sinophone literature from around the world. According to the January 2016 issue of Ink Literary Monthly 《印刻文學生活誌》, the awarded novella, The Statues, “keeps a cold eye…
Announcement: Zabrina Lo awarded CY Tung Scholarship to join Spring 2016 voyage of Semester at Sea
Pictured: Zabrina Lo (right) with Jason S Polley, who recommended Zabrina for the scholarship Zabrina Lo (English Language and Literature, Year 3), co-editor of Department of English’s Edge: HKBU Creative Journal and the First Prize Winner of the English Poetry Contest 2015, has been awarded the CY Tung Scholarship to spend a semester on the…
“Room 101” by Phoenix Lam
What is my worst fear? This is not an easy question to answer. I would like to think of myself as adventurous and daring, and so I am not someone who gets scared easily. However, after what happened in the past few months, I think I can provide a better answer to that question for…
“The Lie” by Zabrina Lo
Her seat has been empty for a year. Still we sit together. Not together. Around the table we eat the tasteless water chestnut cakes which I insist ordering. I lie that the plum rain of China in early January nourishes the jade-like crunchy corms – the best time to savour this New Year’s dish. But…
“How A Ceiling Fan Rotates” by William Ng
I sat at the back of a classroom With twenty lads in a warm and humid afternoon. My mentor taught his English before the board, Writing cursive with his chalk. I caught a certain breeze of calm, Gazing at a buzzing ceiling fan Its metal blades revolving around a milky white and pivotal round. It…
“Weathered” by Grace Wong Hiu Yan
It was declared the last storm of the summer, when the wind was strong and billowing curtains of rain scattered paklan petals over the tiled courtyard, and silver-veined wind chimes echoed the rhythm of beaded eaves. After a while the rain quieted, the clogged drains stirred themselves into delusional cups of tea, and the…
“Late Arrival” by Pamela Wong
Long have I departed from you, long have I been petrified at the front steps, gazing at the gate, reconstructing the countless hours you had spent here, with the stubborn street light, dimmed in the swirling smoke of nicotine. For twelve years had it questioned your patient heart? It agitates me as I am ready…
“Model Factory Man” by Jimmy Chan
His altar was at a food factory. His piety was rated satisfactory. There he performed rituals and pushed buttons, Where he devoted himself to make more muttons. Suddenly the Machine snarled and growled That cowed the acolyte to cower and bow. Then the bell rang a deafening ring And the lights painted his altar with…
“Another Matthew Bear” by Cheng Tim Tim
“We would love to provide bears to all of you who are mourning the loss of someone special. However, we are a very small group and are doing this just for fallen service member’s families.” —The Matthew Freeman Project Covered in a piece of the army uniform you’d worn, now unstained as in the morning…
“A Creative Response to the 3rd Movement of Shostakovich’s Eighth Symphony” by Holden Liang Qichao, with Ivan Delazari
I saw a movie, in cold blue and dark grey colors (film-noirish, dark palette, like at dusk but with no street lights or any artificial light). A woman was running through a labyrinth of streets, looking like Hong Kong (small alleys, lots of cables and laundry lines, the ground wet), with her face towards us, the camera moving backwards in…
“And She Walked On” by GiGi To Man Chee
Removing two zero eight six from my timetable, I reluctantly enrol in a different course on a different day. There’s no doubt poetry is not replaceable, But the die has been cast for my schedule on Fridays. My teacher enthusiastically asked us to read a cat poem, lightly, ………………………………………………………light-heartedly. I wanted to respond, but could…
“Gastritis” by Vinton Poon
. My stomach acid suddenly decides to be adventurous. Without a passport, they travel up. Little do they know, they’re not the most refined tourists, Leaving a trace of blazing pain in my throat. The body is not the most adaptive object. To accommodate, only congee can pass my lips, Their grand voyage has chased…
Ongoing Moments: Anna Tham
Ongoing Moments: A series in which teaching staff and students from the English Department respond to a photograph of their choice. [Read all entries.] [Revisit the “Interrogative” series.] . My brother and me, at sundown chasing waves I lived by the sea in Sai Kung until I was four. It was a small village with…
Ongoing Moments: Tiffany Tsoi Wing Yan
Ongoing Moments: A series in which teaching staff and students from the English Department respond to a photograph of their choice. [Read all entries.] [Revisit the “Interrogative” series.] . After years and years in school, I am now classified as ‘Fresh Graduate’—a concise oxymoron revealing the trick of age. I am now old enough to…
Ongoing Moments: William Ng
Ongoing Moments: A series in which teaching staff and students from the English Department respond to a photograph of their choice. [Read all entries.] [Revisit the “Interrogative” series.] . “Gold Diggers Receiving Letter from Home” (circa 1860), attrib.William Strutt. Oil on canvas, 91.5 x 72.3 cm. Psst, can you feel his longing for a return?…
Ongoing Moments: Jason S Polley
Ongoing Moments: A series in which teaching staff and students from the English Department respond to a photograph of their choice. [Read all entries.] [Revisit the “Interrogative” series.] This is a photo of a photo of me. Believe it or believe it not. But this—this this—is not about me. Or, actually, meaning really, this is…
Ongoing Moments: Nicola Chan Oi Ching
Ongoing Moments: A series in which teaching staff and students from the English Department respond to a photograph of their choice. [Read all entries.] [Revisit the “Interrogative” series.] . Janet and me. If moments could be ongoing … . Together we live twenty-nine days, moving from Russia to France, France to England. . In response…
Ongoing Moments: Tammy Ho Lai-Ming
Ongoing Moments: A series in which teaching staff and students from the English Department respond to a photograph of their choice. [Read all entries.] [Revisit the “Interrogative” series.] . One of the songs that has been adopted by the protesters in Hong Kong during the Umbrella Revolution is “Do You Hear the People Sing,” from…
Ongoing Moments: Paulina Lee
Ongoing Moments: A series in which teaching staff and students from the English Department respond to a photograph of their choice. [Read all entries.] [Revisit the “Interrogative” series.] . This was one of the most extraordinary scenes that I saw in my journeys. Indeed, the mystery of nature has never failed to amaze me. ….
Ongoing Moments: Ivan Delazari
Ongoing Moments: A series in which teaching staff and students from the English Department respond to a photograph of their choice. [Read all entries.] [Revisit the “Interrogative” series.] . Nevsky Prospect, St. Petersburg, Russia, either the Indian summer of 1999 or the spring of 2000: in front of the long colonnade of the Gostiny Dvor…
Ongoing Moments: Christopher Chan
Ongoing Moments: A series in which teaching staff and students from the English Department respond to a photograph of their choice. [Read all entries.] [Revisit the “Interrogative” series.] . It is widely asserted that the Sun, with its all-dominating power, has received innumerable, worship-like appreciations throughout the history of men. In ancient China, or at…
Ongoing Moments: Suzanne Lai
Ongoing Moments: A series in which teaching staff and students from the English Department respond to a photograph of their choice. [Read all entries.] [Revisit the “Interrogative” series.] . The urgency of travel comes from the failure to stay. When activities have (slowly) become inactivities, the resistence lies in perpetual departures. You carefully craft that…
Ongoing Moments: Holden Liang Qichao
Ongoing Moments: A series in which teaching staff and students from the English Department respond to a photograph of their choice. [Read all entries.] [Revisit the “Interrogative” series.] The Incomplete History of a Yellow Bicycle Part One: The Origin Story Breaking news! Local junior high school was struck by what an insider calls “a bicycle…
Department of English, Hong Kong Baptist University 